Chapter 3: The Sword of Solum

The cold night air stung my face as I sat low to the ground in a snow bank. I was properly dressed in Malkai skins now, but I was not a Ferai so that still left me a bit cold in the winter weather. Jared crouched less than a foot from me; we were well hidden by some small firs, and tall mounds of snow. Jared stared intently out into the night; our point of interest was about two miles a head of us, it was a camp where a Ferai Holy Man blessed young hunters before going out into the wilderness, so they may have a safe return. I thought it sounded ridicules, but then I thought about how if Scree had been here he would have chewed me out for disrespecting the culture, so I turned my thoughts back to the matter at hand.

The camp was a bright orange glow against the dark of the night; all I could see where shadows moving inside the tent. Jarred on the other hand being a Ferai could apparently hear (at least to some extent) what was going on inside the tent. Jarred suddenly jerked lower, as if he thought he had been seen, and I did the same.

"What going on?" I whispered

"Those men in the tent… they aren't Farei." Jarred said in a low voice, " They are Abaddon's minions, disguised as Ferai hunters."

"How can you tell?" I asked

"Their scent, its evil and dark, nothing like that of a Farei." He said, and then gave me a long look, " You have forgotten what its like to be a Farei, Jenifer. All our sense are heightened compared to yours, we can smell, see, and hear much more than you can currently. We are hunters, and our senses are our most powerful weapon "

"Yeah, well I don't see me getting my Vam Braces any time soon, so for now you are gonna have to be my eyes, ears, and nose. What is happening inside the tent?"

Jarred turned his attention back to the tent, and a long moment pasted before he ducked back down and turned to me.

"The holy man has failed to see Abaddon's treachery, and has given them his blessing, and good fortune for the hunt." Jarred then quickly pulled me down ducking behind the snow back, and said "They're leaving" so fast I barely heard it. We sat crouching so close to the ground that we were almost flatten against it. Jared slowly rose enough to look over the snow bank.

"Now that interesting." he said.

"What?" I whispered.

"The best hunting grounds lie to the east, but they went toward the north, toward the sacred Necropolis." He gave me a look that said he was worried, " I hate to say it Jen, but we may run into to trouble."

"So what new?" I said with my voice full of dread.

"Yes, but before you had your Vambraces, and stood a fighting chance against Ferai and Abaddon's minions alike, without them you no match for either. " He said. He reached into the Malaki skins he wore, and pulled out a long bladed dagger, and handed it too me. It was nice of him to give me a weapon, but we both knew it was a feeble attempt. I was pretty much screwed if we had to go up against any enemy at this point.

Jared and I hid in the shadows of the tall furs the surrounded the entrance to the burial grounds. We watched as Abaddon's men entered the Necropolis. I peered down the road we had come from. In the dark of the night I could see pairs of golden glowing dots. Malaki were following us, and I had never felt so trapped. Jared stalked forward and I followed. We made our way up the massive stone steps, and the large wooden doors at the top were open. The last time I had stood before these doors, it had taken some effort to get them open. The Holy Man had taken part of it in order to keep trespassers out… a lot of good that did.

" I haven't been here since…" Jared spoke suddenly, and drew me out of my thoughts.

" I am sorry for dragging you back here. I know it must be difficult." I said. Jared had been imprisoned here 10 years ago. While he was imprisoned he was brutally tortured, and his mother had been murdered and replaced with an imposter that worked for Adabbon. Because of these events his father was nearly driven mad, and the whole kingdom was almost destroyed. I managed to help set all of that right, and I sure as hell was not going to let Abaddon take it now.

Jared drew his weapon, " They left the door open, which means they know we have followed them…or they are incredibly stupid? But I am betting we are walking into a trap."

We entered the massive tomb, and went down several flights of stairs before making it into the main room. The room was empty with no signs of Abaddon's men.

"Be careful Jen, who knows where they are?"

I crept slowly along the walls. The walls were stacked all the way to the high ceilings with out coves where Ferai bodies lay. There had to be thousands who lay buried here, and I was looking for only one, that had supposedly been lost for centuries. Way to go Jen, taking on the task that damn near impossible. I looked over all the nameplates that labeled the deceased, I could read none of the names, and I did not want to distract Jared from his position of look out. The last thing we needed was to be caught with our pants down. I looked all the way up, there was no way I could read those, or even if I could, how the hell was I going get all the way up there? I reached the final column of graves on the left wall; the one at the very bottom caught my eye. It had no nameplate. I crouched next to it to see if perhaps it had been broken off over the years, but no, there was no indication that there ever was a nameplate here. It was an unmarked grave, the prefect place to hide something that you didn't want found.

"Jared come quick I think I found something!" I shouted to him across the room.

"Keep your voice down, Jen. What is it? " He said as he ran over to me. I was already busy pulling the mummified Ferai from its out cove. I unsheathed the dagger Jared had given me, and started cutting the bandages the body was wrapped in.

"Jen wait! Slow down, desecrating a body is a serious offense." He warned me. But I was on a mission, and I didn't care.

" You're the king, aren't you? I think you will cut me a deal." I said as I jerked back the wrappings. But all that was under them was a rotten corpse.

"Damn it! I thought for sure I had it!" I cursed.

"Jen for the last time you need to keep you voice down, we are not alone I remind you." I was pissed; mostly at myself forgetting my hopes up that it was be this easy. There was a shit-ton of graves in this place; I suppose one just got skipped over when they were labeling them. This sword was supposedly buried with the first king of Solum. The best way to hide it was to make the King's grave looks like everyone else. It was a good theory, but I guess whoever hid it didn't think like me.

I looked down and saw a long crack in the wood planking where the body had lay. Maybe they did think like me after all. I quickly wedge the dagger under the wood plank as far is it would could. Then uprooted it by pressing down on the dagger like a lever.

"Jen, what are you doing?"

"There is something under here" I said as I wrestled with the plank to pull it free. I gave it a good pull, and fell backwards with the freed plank in hand. I threw the plank aside, and saw what lay under it… it was as a narrow tunnel. I grabbed one of the torches off the wall and held it above the tunnel.

"Damn, that's along way down." I said, " Can't even see the bottom. "

"Assuming there is one," said Jared.

" The sword is down there, it has to be," I said.

" I will stay up here incase company decides to show up." Jared said, " Give me the torch you aren't going to be able to take it down there with you."

"Shit, I was worried you were gonna say that." And I crawled into the tight space, " Christ, this must be how Santa Claus feels" and I disappeared into the dark.

The passageway was pitch black, and it took many twists and turns. After awhile I couldn't tell the difference between up and down, I thought for sure I was lost, and this narrow tunnel would be my grave. Then the dirt gave way and I slid until I fell out of the tunnel into another room, face first on to the ground.

This ground was different; it wasn't cold and hard like most of the ground in Solum. It was kind of warm, and soft, and dry. I stood up and dusted myself off, and took a good look at my surrounds. The room was very dim, and the only light was coming form above. There was a hole in the ceiling of this hidden room, for as far down this room was you could see the moon in the night sky from the hole.

"Where the fuck am I?" I whispered to myself. I looked around and that's when I noticed the room walls were covered in lush green wines, and the floor was a carpet of grass, this had to be the Sacred Grove. I spin around to see a large stone lying in the middle of the room, stuck in the stone was a sword.

"I guess that makes me King Arthur," I said to amuse myself. I walked over too it and on the stone there were words inscribed, it wasn't just any old stone, it was a headstone, even if I could not read it, I just knew. Suddenly stealing from the dead became very real, and I felt a twinge of guilt.

"I am sorry your highness, but I need the sword more they you do. If I don't take it, your wonderful kingdom will fall to the hands of evil. I don't think you would want that." The guilt I felt was replaced by stupidity that I was taking to a rock. Talking to a rock… that thought made me think Scree again. He would have bitched me out for wasting time by thinking of him, and talking to rocks.

I clasped both my hands around the hilt, and gave it a swift tug. The sword released itself from its stone prison. It shattered the headstone upon exiting. I held the sword in my hands: Its blade was made with some black metal unknown to me, and it was split down the middle making it more like two blades. The split stopped about 7 inches from the hilt, and one of the two halves of the blade was longer than the other by at least 5 inches. Through out the whole sword were twisting and turning grooves that glowed with neon green light. As I stared at the green light it began to intensify to a blinding green blur. The sword began to shake violently in my hands, but I could not let go. The light consumed everything around me, all I could hear was my heartbeat, and then everything went blank for second.

Then the light started to recede back into the sword. I could see again, and my heart returned to normal. I could suddenly see a lot more in the dim room. I looked at my hands; they had black spots, and thin grey fur on them. I put my hand to my head, and felt my smooth horns. The sword must have channeled my Feria energy. I placed the sword on the ground, and started to feel myself begin to change back, I quickly picked it up again.

"So that's how it works." I said to myself, " Now its time to go save Solum. Abaddon wont know what hit him."

The way back to the top was much easier with my Ferai senses. As I got closer to the top I could hear voices yelling, but they were muffled, and I didn't speak Ferai. Then I heard a huge commotion, and I knew Jared was in trouble. I moved as fast as I could and finally reached to the top, to find Jared fending off four other Ferai. Jared was right; they defiantly had a different scent to them than other Ferai. I leaped forward and slashed two of them a crossed the chest with the sword. The Ferai's wounds glowed green, and their bodies began to rapidly decay until they were nothing but a pile of bones lying on the floor.

"Whoa, I was not expecting that." I said in totally awe.

"I told you the Sword of Solum was powerful." Jared reminded her.

"Yeah, but not one hit and your dead kind of powerful."

The other two looked in horror at what remained of their companions. Both bolt for up the stairs towards the exit.

"We have to stop them Jen, or they will inform Abaddon that we have found the sword." Jared drew his bow and shot one of the Ferai in the back, causeing him to fall dead to the floor. The other made it out. Jared and I ran after him but when we reached the door out of the Necropolis, he was out of sight. Jared grabbed my arm and pointed off into the distance.

"Look there, that smoke! That's where the Royale Fortress is!" He shouted in total shock, "we have been distracted, and Abaddon has started his assault on my kingdom. We must hurry before we are too late!" He fled down the stairs and was at the bottom before I could even move.

"Jared, Stop! The Rift Gate over there, It will get us there much fast than on foot." We started up the gate and ran through it. A second later we were in the Fortress with chaos all around us. Ferai fought other beasts of all different forms. Jared jump straight battle swinging his blade wildly at the enemy, as I just stood there like a moron stunned by the carnage. The last time I was in oblivion, I witnessed many unsettling things, but none like this. There was death and blood all round. That's when I realized that this is what it would be like every second of everyday if Abaddon ruled. I was not going to let that happen, and I ran after Jared into battle!

Autnor's Note: Sorry it has taken so long to get another chapter up. I had a bit of writers block, but now that over, and updates should be much more regular. Thank you for reading! Please R&R, thanks.